Application Essay Excerpts

My past two summers were both spent at the Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS) at Boston University. For my first year, I went through a highly selective application process and was accepted into the program as one of 50 high school students worldwide. The program, which lasts for six weeks, centers on a number theory course which involves daily lectures and problem sets. These problems are designed to test such skills as numerical exploration, finding structure, forming and proving conjectures, expressing ideas precisely, and generalizing results...

There’s a saying that you learn something new every day. However, due to my curiosity for new information, I learn more new things each day than most. Sometimes, this learning is of an academic nature...

An unknown person said it best: If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. Over my academic and extracurricular life, I have grown accustomed to being among the best in my community in interests such as math and music. There is nothing wrong with this fact...

More than anyone else, he was the kid that I identified with during the latter part of my years at elementary school. Let’s call him Henry. On some level, we connected because we were both on the autism spectrum (Asperger’s, to be specific). More specifically, it was due to our intelligence, vivid imagination, and slight social awkwardness...

In front of me lay two hundred years of history, frozen in a sample only three inches thick. Studying ice core samples allows for the understanding of accumulated snowfall each year, which scientists use to identify the natural cycles of climate change...

I am a foreigner. To the Taiwanese, I am foreign because I attend an American school and speak fluent English with my friends. I dress differently; my clothes are more “American” instead of the newest Asian fashions. To the Americans, I am foreign because I live in Taiwan. I’ve grown accustomed to motorcycles on the sidewalks trying to avoid traffic and to the smell of chou doufu (stinky tofu) on the streets...

First drop: nothing in particular. Second drop: the glasses get wet, hazing the scene around me. Third drop, fourth drop, fifth drop.... The rain pours down as hurriedly as the people run for shelter. Normally, I would follow them, hastening to the nearest place that could keep my clothes dry. But today, I don’t. Holding my palms upward, I feel the tickle of the raindrops sweeping away the sweat and easing my head...

I realized in the beginning of my high school career that I wanted to create something that lasted far beyond my lifetime. I wanted to discover or invent a new material or machine that could change the world. One great way to do this was to pursue a career in engineering, which eventually led me to the University Of Michigan College Of Engineering...

I was sitting in a friend’s front lawn when I first overheard someone say that there should be a ping pong tournament at our high school. Although I am not an experienced player of any sort, I do love to play ping pong every now and then. I began to jokingly discuss the possibility of a ping pong tournament in Oak Forest with a couple of my friends. At first I did not think it would actually happen, but it all slowly became a reality...

Until fifth grade, I honestly had no friends. Most people I know can say that they have known someone on their block or a family friend since they were born. Since my parents came from the Philippines and didn’t know anyone in Oak Forest when they moved, I grew up isolated from others. My family was different and I knew it. I was raised differently from the American norm. There seemed to be little that I could relate to with others; therefore, I didn’t talk much. This was my life for 11 years until I met Danielle ----...